Content about Sports Illustrated

Unable to compete in NFL last season, Sam will compete for Mirror Ball Trophy

Michael Sam has been chosen to appear on ABC's Dancing With the stars.

The first openly gay player ever drafted by a National Football League team will be among the celebrities competing when the season's roster is unveiled Tuesday (24 February) on ABC's Good Morning America, according to TMZ.

Sam made the cover of Sports Illustrated when he came out publicly just after completing his stellar college career at the University of Missouri.

'Believe me: Gay players exist. Every pro sport has them. I know some of them personally.'

Jason Collins, the first openly gay basketball player, has retired.

The 35-year-old will announce his retirement from the game at the Barclays Center, New York City, later on today (19 November).

Following his coming out 18 months ago, he was signed with the Brooklyn Nets. When he did this, he made history by being the first active male athlete from any of the four major North American professional team sports to do so.

ABC sportscaster Dale Hansen has delivered a stirring monologue criticizing NFL officials who’ve said that Michael Sam’s coming out will affect his desirability as a player – noting that it was only a few decades ago that black players were controversial for the NFL

Veteran ABC sports caster Dale Hansen has slammed critics of college gridiron player Michael Sam’s decision to come out, saying no team should be resistant to hiring such a talented player – and noting how many top professional players had serious criminal charges leveled against them without damaging their careers.

The openly gay US former basketball star Jason Collins will be among the First Lady's guests at President Barack Obama's State of the Union Speech, leading some to believe the president will highlight his campaign's successes with regards to LGBTI rights

Gay US basketball star Jason Collins, 35, is one of the guests selected to sit with Michelle Obama at President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech on 28 January.

Collins made history as the first male athlete to come out as gay while playing for a major US team sport in April 2013.

Cheyenne Jackson has had plenty of snow on Christmas. So this year, the Tony Award nominated star is hoping for plenty of sunshine.

'I just moved to LA so I'll be spending it with my family in Laguna Beach,' Jackson tells Gay Star News. 'It will be my first time without snow - I'm excited. Me and my boyfriend are going to go out there.'

It's Jackson's first Christmas with new boyfriend, actor Jason Landau. He split from husband Monte Lapka this summer after less than two years of marriage and a decade together.

Tells GSN: 'I couldn't be happier and more content with being able to live an authentic and genuine life'

This is the first fall in more than a decade that Jason C0llins has not been on the roster of an NBA team.

But no need to feel sorry for him.

'Whatever your situation you try to have a positive outlook on so everything is a blessing. I couldn't be happier and more content with being able to live an authentic and genuine life,' Collins told Gay Star News over the weekend.

'I feel there are players in the league right now that, quite frankly, I’m better than'

Jason Collins has broken his silence about not yet being signed to an NBA team.

The veteran center, who came out as gay in a Sports Illustrated cover story last spring, does not directly say whether he believes his coming out is playing a role in his not being picked up as a free agent.

Jason Collins was enthusiastically cheered last weekend by thousands of sports fans for his status as an openly gay pro basketball player.

But the cheers were not coming from the crowd at an NBA game, they were from a baseball crowd at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles on a special LGBT night. Collins threw out the first pitch.

While the 34-year-old veteran has been treated like a celebrity since his very public coming out on the cover of Sports Illustrated last April, no NBA team has shown interest in having him join their roster.

A week into the league's summer signing period, free agent Jason Collins remains without a new team

Jason Collins may have made history this spring by becoming the first active NBA player in history to come out as gay but there is a question of whether he will even be active next season.

Collins, 34, had just completed the season playing for the Boston Celtics then the Washington Wizards when his story went public on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He was a free agent who had played in only 38 games the entire season.

Center Roy Hibbert reaches out to Jason Collins on Twitter for the anti-gay comment made after Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals

Roy Hibbert, center for the NBA's Indiana Pacers, is in hot water for an anti-gay slur used in a press conference yesterday (1 June).

Hibbert's team had jut won Game 6 in their 7-game-series against LeBron James and the Miami Heat. A reporter asked Hibbert, a Georgetown University graduate, about his defense on James during a crucial part of the game.

The leading African American DJ and how he dismissed gay, black NBA star Jason Collins which reporting a totally separate black issue – a rape by three athletes

On 1 May Jason Collins, the 7’0” center for the Washington Wizards, and a former Boston Celtics, came out. His statement ‘I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay’ made the cover story for Sports Illustrated.

On 2 May, three Morehouse College basketball athletes were accused of raping an 18-year-old Spelman College student. The story didn’t hit the airwaves in the same way as the Collins story.

Many in the African American community were silent on both incidents because they view both as poxes on the community.

Parents said they were surprised when son came out to them last summer

Sports Illustrated may have landed Jason Collins for his coming out story but it is Oprah Winfrey who managed to get his family together for a joint interview.

Winfrey's chat with the first openly gay active player in NBA history, his parents, twin brother, sister-in-law and aunt for Oprah's Next Chapter which will air Sunday (5 May) on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Winfrey asked parents Paul and Portia Collins if when their son came out to them last summer if there was 'a releasing of the dream ... of who he would be walking down the aisle with.'

Tennis legend came out as a lesbian 33 years ago while at the peak of her career

Since no other male professional athlete in the US had come out during their playing careers, NBA player Jason Collins had to look back at a female superstar who did it 33 years ago.

That is Martina Navratilova who in 1981 came out publicly at the age of 23. She had two Wimbledon singles crown to her credit at the time and would go on to win 16 more grand slam singles titles as an openly gay athlete.